Notes from the Boat (That We're All Riding in)...

Some thoughts about the news...

• I have been impressed with the news coverage about the Haiti earthquake and aftermath by Anderson Cooper and the news reporters at CNN. That is good broadcast journalism.
• For now, I would like to commend Google with its latest threat to pull out of China if it has to continue to filter out words and images that upset the communist dictatorship. It is about time, I would add. Where is Microsoft and Yahoo and the others in also standing up, finally, for freedom and rights? When all the American Internet companies hurried into China, their goal, of course, was one greedy measure: $. Since then, the companies have gotten deserved criticism for being complicit in censorship and the jailing of activists. China should allow the photo of the Tank Man at Tiananmen Square to be accessed on its computers. And everything else that comes with a real worldwide web. China's tricky mix of communism and capitalism has shown that capitalism doesn't equal democracy. But we knew that with all the other dirty little dictators around the world that like to enhance their coffers while they step on people's rights. Now, we will see if Google stands for something greater, in terms of ethics. I hope I will commend Google later for standing tall. I know I will not be using the "Bing" search engine of Microsoft and others until those companies gets some ethical guts, too.
• The win by Republican Scott Brown in the Senate race in Massachusetts was interesting in many ways. I wondered if sports (baseball knowledge) mattered; apparently it did to some voters there. I wondered that if the woman candidate had been the centerfold rather than the man candidate, how would the media and societal response have been different? But I don't think Brown's victory means the Republican Party is now in a better place. I think it means that incumbents or those coming from the incumbent party (in the case of Martha Coakley) need to worry. It will only take a few conservative "nothing" votes by Brown to put him into the disappointment category, unless he has figured out a way to attain populist progress after an election.
• President Obama (and all the conservative national media) need to quit chasing the unicorn. A unicorn is mythical and doesn't exist. So, is the idea that going to the political center to produce watered-down, crap legislation is the way to lead or to attain real progress for the nation or to have any legacy of greatness.
• All a person has to do is look at the major issues and see whether those issues naturally and progressively go to the right or go to the left. Health care--Do we want the status quo on that when other nations in the world do better to provide health care for their citizens? No. So, which way do you go? Of course, you go left, providing more coverage. Most people in this country wanted universal health care. Most people wanted the public option in the latest debate. Why wasn't that the way the politics went? It went to the center and has nearly strangled Obama's campaign idealism as seen by his voters. The wars--Go to the right andthat means adding more troops and spending more money on war. Go to the left and that means leave doing the mission swiftly and getting out. (The use of troops as peacekeepers and rescue assistance in Haiti was a better use of money if the Pentagon wants to think of ways to sustain its huge budget.) Those are just two examples of why conservatism doesn't work. Look at any generation. Is any current generation more conservative or more liberal than their parents? They are almost always more liberal. That's the path of history.
• After the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, decided that limits on what corporations can spend on political campaigns are against freedom of speech, I pulled out my wallet and looked inside it to see how much free speech I had. Hmmm. Not very much there. But I never figured, even before, that my amount of financial power would ever equal the power of Microsoft, Time Warner, Disney, or Exxon. That's why I write, why I blog, why I try to voice my opinion in any way I can, knowing that money also talks. The U.S. Supreme Court did no favors to the status of the American citizen by blessing corporations with one more advantage. Does it also then mean that corporations that are largely controlled by foreign countries, such as China, or have great interests there will get to try to influence American politics? I hate to think, though I guess it could backfire, too. Probably an endorsement to an issue or candidate by a corporation linked to a foreign dictatorship or agendas would be a kiss of political death.